Sleep Awareness Week, 'Sleep Better, Be Better'

WHAT: Sleep Awareness Week, 'Sleep Better, Be Better'WHEN: July 6-12, 2015WHO: Professor David Hillman, Chair, Sleep Health Foundation, will be available for interviews.

Want to feel smarter, happier and more decisive? The solution is simpler than you think. This year's Sleep Awareness Week promotes getting between seven and nine hours shut eye a night as a means to feel more alert, energized, decisive, happy and less prone to catching winter bugs.

Almost 10,000 serious workplace injuries and more than 25,000 serious road crash injuries are caused by poor alertness each year. The cost to the Australian economy is substantial—over $5 billion a year in lost productivity and healthcare costs, and over $31 billion a year in the loss of healthy life.

"This year's message is a powerful one - 'Sleep better, Be better'," says Professor David Hillman, Chair, Sleep Health Foundation, which promotes the important annual event. "We're saying take your sleep more seriously and you'll see immediate and impressive results at work, at home, socially and on the sports field."

The campaign will include advice to help busy workers, students and those in safety-first roles like truck driving and heavy machinery operation to get a good night's sleep so they can boost safety and daytime productivity.

The event runs on Twitter, Facebook and on the foundation's website where the public is encouraged to get top sleep tips, complete a sleep study and track their bedtime habits with a diary.

Fatigue in Australia

More than 18 per cent of adults report sleeping less than six hours a night regularly, with sleep disorders affecting over 20 per cent of the population.

One in five serious car crash injuries are attributed to impaired alertness, making it one of the largest identifiable and preventable cause of transport accidents.

16 per cent of the Australian workforce are shift workers, who experience impaired alertness due to inadequate sleep and disruption of the 24-hour body clock.

45 per cent of the truck drivers have a sleep disorder causing impaired alertness.

Employees with a sleep disorder have a 50 per cent increased risk of occupational injury, absenteeism and error or safety violation attributed to fatigue.

We are grateful to Forty Winks for their continued support for this event in 2015.